Beaches Turks and Caicos Resort Villages and Spa has joined an elite number of organizations in the world in achieving the highest level of EarthCheck Certification.
In attaining Platinum, Beaches Turks and Caicos has been recognized for having consistently demonstrated their commitment to host communities and high standards of environmental care, over a period of ten years or more.
Rather than opting for the easier path of simply collecting “green badges”, Beaches Turks and Caicos chose a more meaningful approach to sustainable tourism. This involved using EarthCheck science-based software and tools to measure the effectiveness of their environmental and CSR practices.
Each day for the past decade, has seen all Beaches staff adhere to an internationally recognized standard of Best Practice. They have reported their environmental footprint to EarthCheck annually and permitted independent auditors to verify the credibility of their environmental and social claims.
“The Sandals Group is committed to providing Luxury Included holiday experiences for our guests while minimizing the environmental and social impacts associated with our operations explained Managing Director Donald Dagenais.” These include, freshwater and energy conservation; recycling and reuse programs for solid waste and wastewater treatment systems; eliminating the use of hazardous substances; reduction of greenhouse gas emissions; preservation of land and fragile ecosystems; focused community development and cultural relations; and the employment of qualified local personnel in keeping with our existing human resource policies. The environmental focus within our hotels also includes programs to minimize noise pollution and hazardous emissions where these are identified within our operations” Mr. Dagenais concluded.
A number of key indicators such as energy and water consumption, total waste production, and community commitment were measured and benchmarked against their peers. This provided a competitive picture of efficiencies and performance and identified where room for improvement remained.
“There are no short cuts and no ways to buy your way in to the top spot,” explained EarthCheck CEO Stewart Moore. “Rather, this took everyone at Beaches Turks and Caicos a great deal of hard work and commitment over many, many years to achieve.”
“They’re well ahead of most governments and industry players globally as a result of their efforts and serve as a leader in the field of sustainable practices. Their operations serve as an excellent example for how to gain buy-in from key stakeholders, achieve an excellent ROI, and increase asset effectiveness over time,” Moore concluded.
For economies reliant on travel and tourism, EarthCheck’s benchmarking data provides the only historical record of the global environmental impacts of the industry over the past 12 years. More importantly, it rates the effectiveness of industry efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) and conserve natural resources at a project-by-project level.
For travellers the world over, it’s good to know there’s a credible body keeping track of sustainability claims. The EarthCheck logo represents travel and tourism’s efforts to come together and take meaningful steps to address the serious challenges faced by the planet.
